“Religious speech should not be treated as second-class,” said ADF Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco.  “This court properly recognized that the school officials had violated this student’s First Amendment rights by singling her out for censorship, simply because the song she wanted to sing is one that expresses her religious faith.”

In May 2005, a district judge denied ADF’s request for a temporary restraining order against the school board, dashing the little girl’s hopes to sing her selected song at her school’s after-hours talent show that evening.

The principal of Frenchtown Elementary school had denied the student’s selection, deeming it inappropriate for the school talent show because of its “overtly religious message and proselytizing nature.”

The federal court in today’s ruling stated that “a song selected and performed by an individual student…was the private speech of a student and not a message conveyed by the school itself.”  The court, quoting a ruling in a similar case in the 3rd Circuit, also determined that to exclude speech simply because it is divisive or controversial is to engage in unlawful viewpoint discrimination.

A full copy of the ruling issued today by the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in the case of Turton v. Frenchtown Elementary School District Board of Education can be read at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/TurtonOpinion.pdf.

“The effect of this court decision is that it permanently prohibits this school from discriminating against religious speech within the context of its school talent shows,” said Tedesco.  “Today’s ruling is a tremendous victory for religious liberty and free speech, especially for students.”

ADF is a legal alliance defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding, and litigation